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Particulate Matter Concentrations in the Southern Tip of India: Temporal Variation, Meteorological Influences, and Source Identification

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Abstract

Objective

This study investigates the temporal variability of particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) concentrations at an inland tropical coastal site in Thiruvananthapuram (8.5°N, 76.9°E), which is in the province of Kerala in the southern part of India.

Method

Continuous measurements of PM10 and PM2.5 were carried out with high resolution datasets from March 2014 to February 2016. Variations of PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations were statistically analyzed. The conditional bivariate probability function analysis, coherence wavelet transform and HYSPLIT back trajectory model are used for this study.

Results

The annual mean mass concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 were 44.5 ± 14.6 and 27.7 ± 10 µg m−3, respectively, for March 2014 to February 2015. Similarly, in March 2015 to February 2016, the concentrations were 40.3 ± 11.9 and 24.4 ± 7.8 µg m−3, respectively, for PM10 and PM2.5. Both concentrations exhibited higher values during winter and lower values during monsoon. The coarse particle concentration (PM10–PM2.5) during the study period was 17.38 ± 3.64 µg m−3. The mean PM2.5/PM10 ratio was found to be 0.56 ± 0.13 µg m−3 , which varied from 0.05 to 0.99 in March 2014–February 2015, and in March 2015–February 2016 it varied from 0.03 to 0.99 with a mean of 0.54 ± 0.08 µg m−3. Diurnal analysis revealed that the concentrations were higher during morning (~08:00 IST) and evening (~20:00 IST) and low during 12:00 IST–17:00 IST. The anthropogenic activities, the diurnal variation of boundary-layer height and the effects of meteorological parameters are the major elements for these variations. The effects of meteorological parameters on particulate matter were studied, and a negative correlation was observed with wind speed, rainfall, and relative humidity. The relationship between particulate matter and rainfall was investigated by applying coherence wavelet transform. The bivariate analysis showed that high PM2.5 concentrations were associated with low wind speeds indicating the presence of local pollutants. The highest concentrations were found for PM10 with moderate to strong winds, which represent the presence of local emissions. as well as long-range transport. The conditional bivariate probability function analysis was performed to identify the probability of source contributions to PM concentrations at different wind speed and direction. The results indicated that the highest probability to get high concentrations of PM from south-southwest direction with wind speed <5 ms−1. HYSPLIT model back-trajectories of high PM10 episodes show two dominant streamlines, one originating from the Bay of Bengal region and another from Middle East Asia.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the project director, Modelling Atmospheric Pollution and Networking, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology for identifying Thiruvananthapuram as a MAPAN station. Also, we sincerely acknowledge the support of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, for providing grants with the project entitled as MAPAN-13. We also acknowledge with thanks to Dr. T. N. Prakash, Senior Scientist, NCESS; Dr. K. K Ramachandran, Group head, AtP and Director, NCESS for providing support and continued encouragement. The authors gratefully acknowledge the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) for the provision of the HYSPLIT transport and dispersion model and data. MERRA data is available from NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Centre. We thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which helped us to improve the manuscript.

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  1. Atmospheric Processes Group, National Centre for Earth Science Studies, ESSO-MoES, Government of India, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

    R. K. Sumesh, K. Rajeevan, E. A. Resmi & C. K. Unnikrishnan

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  1. R. K. Sumesh
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  2. K. Rajeevan
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  3. E. A. Resmi
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  4. C. K. Unnikrishnan
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Correspondence to C. K. Unnikrishnan.

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Sumesh, R.K., Rajeevan, K., Resmi, E.A. et al. Particulate Matter Concentrations in the Southern Tip of India: Temporal Variation, Meteorological Influences, and Source Identification. Earth Syst Environ 1, 13 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-017-0015-9

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